SANTO DOMINGO. - It took Puerto Rico’s authorities more than eight months to realize that the drug trafficker Jose Figueroa Agosto escaped from the Rio Piedras, “maximum security” prison in the neighboring island by using a forged release order, the mechanism used by two of his Dominican associates who also fled the correctional facility called “Oso Blanco” (white bear).

The false prisoner release order in Figueroa’s name was taken to the Rio Piedras State Penitentiary on November 5, 1999, by a person of the courier company Advance Messenger Service, and was executed immediately, and the convict left the jail at 7:39 p.m. that same day.

However Organized Crime and Drugs Division special prosecutor Nelson Espinell Ortiz activated a search after he received the information that Figueroa had been seen “free in the community.”

The usual procedure is that a court bailiff delivers release orders, and not by mail, to guarantee that signatures are in fact of judicial officials. Despite that procedures were violated in the case no one has yet to be penalized.

The special prosecutor went to the penitentiary on June 16, 2000, where he confirmed the convict’s escape and who by then was already in Dominican Republic, using the name Felipe Rodriguez de la Rosa, a Dominican I.D. acquired on December 14, 1999.

That makes suppose that after to escape the jail and to come to Dominican Republic the fugitive today it used to visit the neighboring island.

In the last few days Puerto Rico’s media have uncovered that legislators and leaders of its Nuevo Progresista party sought Figueroa’s pardon with then Puerto Rico governor Pedro Roselló, despite the convict’s prison sentence for drug trafficking, murder and torture.

That's the prison from which 5 Cuban and Columbian prisoners were "escaped" by a helicopter landing in the exercise yard in broad daylight, thence by yacht from Ponce on the south coast.Sort of like bank robbing with a bicycle and getting away with it.

GC,The prison in Bayamon is a regional facility that is contracted by C.S.C. (Correctional Services Corporation) a public company, Nasdaq Ticker Symbol CSCQ. The only penal institution managed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons in P.R. is the Metropolitan Detention Center in Guaynabo. That's where most of our "extradites" are processed from. Don't want you losing any bar bets buddy.

Pelaut,There where three not five escapees from this prison on April 7, 1991. Lazaro Diaz Fernandez, Fernando Montanez Bultron and William Lane were all returned to El Oso Blanco to finish their sentences plus the additional time for escape, Diaz-Fernandez was extradited back to P.R. from Colombia and the other two were recaptured on the island. Two of the three are still imprisoned there.

Devin for a moment you had me confused I am referring to the facility known as The Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) Guaynabo of which I am as familiar with as my hand from the day it was built .Bayamon Catano and Guaynabo and are for many people interchangeable due to their proximity This facility is formidable and Federal and I have been going there for years The building across the street lists it address as Catano and they were their at least 10 years before the feds built the cage

GC,This forum doesn't need elevating, it needs burying. There cannot be a difference of opinion here that is not met with a response of "your mother is a whore" or "you're a stupid bitch", always expressed with the vaporous irony of misinformation and a callous regard for factual truths. Any response that is not in the norm with the hardline stance leads to a swarm of negative rankings in order to censor the post or an immediate change to your nationality as there seems to be many people on this forum with the power to give you Haitian citizenship.

The most ironic posts that I read this last week were on the Sonia Pierre award ceremony from the US State Department. One post said, (I'm paraphrasing), ..."stop spreading your lies, we are not racist, you ape, get back in your cage...", that post receved NINE positive responses. Now I can understand people being angry or upset by Ms. Pierre but responses like "ape, monkey, you ugly bitch, fo, she stinks, cont.---

only serve to embolden her stance and continue to garner her outside support. How the irony of this is lost on some people is dumbfounding to me. It is these responses by a rabid minority that bolsters her fund raising ability and thus the continuity of an unfairly shared view of Dominicans at large. She may be physically unatractive but she knows how to play for support, a support that is afforded by the same people who cannot supress their animus towards her and by extension "those like her".

Another post regarding the US State Department report that chastised the D.R.'s governmental corruption and humanitarian issues brought out the irony in buckets. While I completely understand people feeling that the report was hypocritical and unfair, I can't understand how the anger was directed at the US as opposed to the US government representatives responsible for the report. So many posts were written hoping for the demise of the US and most written from the very same US. BLIND IRONY.

Let's see, the guy escaped in '99. He had connections with the Rosello crowd, whose cabinet did Federal time for corruption. Umm.Back to 2010, and the head cop of P.R. grandstands when Fortuno is on the rocks. Well, let's be thankful Fortuno is in trouble, or this guy may never be caught.

Yes devin sometimes DT can be a bloodsport and a food fight but people like yourself shine through the fog .....The vast majority of the forum read and look forward to your erudite levelheaded postings.....You are part of a nucleus that makes it all worth while

devin11, true, facts don't have a shelf life... however, more often than not the facts are distorted or mis recorded and reflect that which is furthest from the truth. In fact, very often the commercialized publications of these so called "facts" have an adverse impact on the story told to the masses, which is the mere information the general public has to base their opinion on. This story happened a very long time ago... surely a lot must be interpreted differently since then.